Word of the Day
by ifan13
Summary: A series of one shots involving Rose and the Doctor's "getting together", each one based on an unusual word ...
1. Animalcule

**A/N: **For over a year, I've been getting emails telling me what the word of the day was and I've done absolutely nothing with them. But then I wrote my story "Comeuppance" and people liked it so much that I decided to write a whole series of one shots, each based on an unusual word. Now, where could I find a list of very unusual words just waiting for me to use them? Yes, you guessed it. So, here's the first installment of Word of the Day. I hope you like it!

**Disclaimer: **Let's see, I'm getting the rights to Doctor Who for Christmas, but since it's not Christmas yet - no, I don't own Doctor Who.

**Word of the Day - Animalcule**

_Animalcule – (n.) a minute or microscopic animal, nearly or quite invisible to the naked eye_

"So, Rose Tyler, where do ya want to go today?" the Doctor asked, looking over at the aforementioned Rose Tyler who was leaning against the TARDIS console.

"Oh, I don't kn- oh! I've got it!" Rose exclaimed with a mischievous smile, her tongue poking out from between her teeth. "How 'bout Hollywood, 1953? That would be _so _much fun!"

The Doctor scowled. "No, absolutely not! I might run into Marilyn Monroe again and if I meet Marilyn one more time, I won't be able to escape her! I can't believe you would suggest such a thing- well, I can but I'm trying to think better of you."

Rose burst out laughing and the Doctor joined in. After a couple of minutes, Rose calmed down enough to ask the Doctor a question.

"Alright, Doctor, if ya don't want to go to Hollywood, then where _do _you want to go?"

"Well – let's go to the … the- oh! The Shenprinika Animalcule Zoo! It's this zoo on a 72nd century human colony where all the animals are absolutely tiny, only about two inches long – which means that the name is actually rather misleading because animalcule implies that the animals are practically microscopic and they're not …" the Doctor shook his head, as if trying to clear it and went back to the original topic. "The way zoo came about is actually really interesting. You see, this scientist decided that he absolutely had to go to the zoo even though he was carrying around this super important shrinking-concentrate-prototype vial in his pocket. You know, that almost sounds like a craving! I wonder if you can have cravings for places … anyway, he visited the zoo after hours and -"

Rose watched the Doctor fondly as he continued on animatedly about the scientist tripping, the vial breaking, and the entire zoo shrinking. Ah, there really wasn't anyone like her Doctor, was there? And he was _her _Doctor. It was a simple fact – she loved him and he loved her. Even though he had never told her so, she could tell every time he looked at her, every time he held her hand. He was just too bashful to say those three little words aloud. Or he thought the universe would implode if he did. Or he thought he was protecting her by staying silent.

Honestly, Rose didn't really care why he was holding out on her. No matter what the reason was for the Doctor's silence, it was time to end it. Her Doctor didn't need to be alone anymore.

Rose moved closer to the Doctor (with the TARDIS egging her on) till she was right up next to him. There wasn't any perceptible change except for the fact that the Doctor somehow managed to change the subject of the conversation to bananas and seemed rather flustered.

Rose tugged on the Doctor's sleeve and then spoke. "You're babbling," she said quietly, looking up at him mischievously.

Looking down into Rose's deep, soulful eyes, the Doctor gulped. "I- I am? Well, um, you know, babbling is really a very interesting word. It's-"

"No, no, Doctor. It really isn't."

"It isn't?"

"No."

It was so silent in the TARDIS after they both stopped talking, you could have heard a pin drop. Rose thought she could hear the Doctor's hearts beating abnormally fast. Her tongue poked out from between her teeth and the Doctor grinned at her. They stood there just smiling at each other, Rose all beautiful and pink and yellow; the Doctor all skinny and slightly foxy with his messy hair and brainy specs.

And Rose couldn't take it anymore. She had had a plan of attack, where she'd gradually break down his defenses, but after seeing that smile, she couldn't wait. Feeling very Cassandra-esc, she grabbed the Doctor by the lapels and pulled him in for a deep snog.

Then she didn't feel like Cassandra at all because with Cassandra, it had been all about sexual attraction. This was different. As the Doctor slipped his arms around Rose's waist, she knew this was right. This wasn't just about physical attraction – this was about two people that absolutely belonged together.

But then the Doctor pulled away and Rose began to have some qualms of doubt. He loved her, but maybe it was against the rules to- no, rules never bothered him much. Maybe Time Lords didn't do this kind of thing. _And now I've ruined everything!_

"Rose," the Doctor said quietly, looking at Rose's frozen form. Rose, on the other hand, was praying to anyone who could hear her. _Please don't let him send me away! Please, oh, please! I'll do anything!_

"Rose," he repeated, "I probably should have said this earlier. But as much as I talk, I couldn't find the right words. I still don't quite know how to say it-" He just gave up and with a growl, pulled Rose in for a deep kiss.

When they broke apart again, they didn't pull away from each other; the Doctor actually pulled Rose in closer to him.

"I love you," Rose whispered, looking soulfully into the Doctor's eyes.

"That's it!" the Doctor exclaimed. "I couldn't figure out how to translate how I felt into English, but that will do nicely, although what I want to say would be much more precise in Gallifreyan. But, anyway, I love you!"

"What would you say in Gallifreyan?"

The Doctor whispered the very special phrase in Rose's ear that encompassed every ounce of love and affection and longing that he felt. He was right, it was so much more precise. She felt as if he was letting her look at his soul and she shivered in delight.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" Rose asked, still shivering slightly.

"I-" the Doctor paused, looking down, "I was afraid you'd leave me."

"So, if I'd never said anything, you never would have?" Rose sighed. "I suppose that I have to do everything myself, don't I? I mean, it's-"

The Doctor silenced Rose with a deep snog and swept her off her feet, carrying her to the depths of the TARDIS. "If I didn't shut you up, you'd still be talking and we'd never get around to some deliciously naughty things. Do I have to do everything myself?"

**A/N: **So, I hope you like it. Please review! It helps keep the muse alive ... And watch out for the next installment!


	2. Balderdash

**A/N: **So, here is the second installment of Word of the Day. I rather enjoyed this one, so I hope you do too! In case you hadn't noticed, the first chapter was prompted by an "a" word and this one is prompted by a "b" word. So, to answer your question, yes. There will be a story for each letter of the alphabet. Dedicated to Matt Bomer (see explanation below ...)

**Disclaimer: **Not only do I own Doctor Who, but I also have snogged David Tennant, met Sherlock Holmes, and am an NCIS agent ... in my dreams.

**Word of the Day - Balderdash**

_Balderdash – (n.) senseless, stupid, or exaggerated talk or writing; nonsense_

Rose watched, horrified, as the large, blue aliens injected something into the Doctor's arm. She tried to get closer to him and stop the aliens, but the chains attaching her to the wall held fast. She winced in sympathy as the aliens pulled the needle out of the Doctor's arm and he made a slight noise of pain.

After the aliens left, Rose asked the Doctor urgently, "Are you all right? What did they give you? And who are _they_, anyway?"

"They are the Brobdingngians and I'm guessing they want to ask me some questions, because they gave me some kind of truth serum. I'm expelling it from my body now, but it's going to take several minutes for me to finish and the drug is already beginning to take effect. So, if they come back, don't let me say anything I shouldn't," the Doctor said, all in one breath. Almost as soon as he finished talking, his eyes got slightly unfocused and his head lolled as the drug began to take effect.

"Doctor! Doctor, are you alright?" Rose asked in a worried voice.

"Nope," the Doctor replied, popping his "p" and forcing his heavy head up so that he could look at Rose. "Normally, I wouldn't admit that because I don't want you to think I'm weak, but it appears I can't help it now!"

"I'll never think of you as weak," Rose replied in a reassuring voice, touched.

"But you might if I always said, 'Nope.' And then you might leave me. I have to hide all my fears and nightmares and my hate inside of me or else you might run away screaming. And I couldn't go on if my Rose left me." A tear slipped down his face as he looked deeply into Rose's eyes. "Please don't leave me, Rose," he asked pathetically.

Rose stared at the Doctor, astounded. "You don't need me – if you didn't have me, you'd still be fine."

"Balderdash!" the Doctor suddenly yelled.

"What?" Rose asked, completely confused by what had just come out of the Doctor's mouth.

"Balderdash! How can Shake survive without Shiver? How can I live without my Rose? She make's me whole."

Rose accepted her sudden relegation to the third person without a blink (it wasn't as strange as him saying balderdash …). "She does?"

"Yep," the Doctor replied happily. "She's my best friend. Me an' her are perfect for each other. Hey, 'ya wanna know a secret?" His words began to slur together.

"If you want to tell me one," Rose said, trying not to take advantage of his compromised situation.

"I wanna be more than best friends. She doesn't know this but I love her." The Doctor giggled, delighted to to have shocked his companion.

"Y-you do?" _He loves me?_

"Yep!"

_He loves me! The Doctor loves me! Ah, Doctor, you're-_

"Everyone loves Rose ..."

_Oh. He means a general kind of love._

"... but I love her the most. I love her so much I wanna tell her my greatest secret, but I'm afraid she'll leave me."

_He does love me! Doctor, now you're never getting rid of me! Ha! Wait – he wants to tell me his greatest secret - his name? _"You want to tell Rose your name?"

"Yep," the Doctor said happily. Then his face suddenly became very worried. "Don' tell 'er I said so. She might slap me like 'er mother an' Jackie Tyler's got a helluva slap. Pleeease ..."

Rose thought she must be shinning as bright as she did when she was the Bad Wolf, she was so happy. But she could think about the fact that the Doctor loved her (her!) later. She had things to do at the moment. "Don't worry, Doctor. I won't tell her. But I know Rose very well and I know she'll want to hear about this. So, first, we're gonna get out of here and then, I'm gonna make you tell Rose what you just told me. So, Doctor, when are you going to be done expelling that drug?"

The Doctor looked at her owlishly. "I f-finished _hours _an' _hours _ago. It jus' didn't work."

_The Doctor's obviously down for the count … _"So, how am I gonna get us out of these cuffs?" Rose muttered to herself.

"You mean these?" the Doctor asked, holding up a pair of cuffs that used to be on him. "I got outa these hours ago, too."

Rose was completely mystified. "But … how? They took the sonic screwdriver!"

The Doctor waggled his eyebrows at her. "Time Lord," he reminded her in a voice so condescending she would have been really annoyed except for the fact that he looked so silly.

"Well then, _Mr. Time Lord_, get me out of here!"

* * *

><p>Minutes later, they had escaped their cuffs and their prison cell and were sneaking down a drafty hallway, Rose supporting a sagging Doctor. Things were going remarkably well for one of their escapes, but of course, as soon as Rose noticed that, they ran into a gigantic Brobdingnagian.<p>

"The two prisoners will return to their cells, immediately," it ordered in a squeaky voice.

Bose blinked at the incongruity of the the voice and the size of the body, but didn't comment on it. Instead, she set out to convince the alien to let her and the Doctor go. "I know you think you want to take us back to our cell and imprison us again, but, believe me, you _really _don't!"

"Ha! And why is that?"

"Because this here is the Doctor and he once blew up an entire continent just to avoid eating a pear. He's quite simply a madman with a box. But this madman is also known as the Oncoming Storm and even the Daleks fear him. Now, you can let us go and we'll leave in peace. But I can't guarantee your safety if you don't let us go. What's it gonna be?"

The Brobdingnagian looked at "the Oncoming Storm" who was looking more breezy than stormy, then looked at the pink and yellow girl holding him up, and then looked at his huge self. He smiled and started making his way towards them …

* * *

><p>Rose stood in front of her sleeping Doctor and watched the prison where she and the Doctor had been kept, burn.<p>

"I did warn them," she muttered as she watched all the Brobdingnagians that had been inside the prison run around crazily.

Just then, she heard something stirring behind her. She turned around to see the Doctor trying to get up.

"Rose," he called out.

Rose made her way to the Doctor's side. "I'm here."

He smiled as he looked at her. "Rose," he murmured happily. Then he jumped up and backed away from her, looking horrified. It appeared that he remembered what he had said earlier.

"About what I said earlier, I – I," the Doctor stammered. He was terrified that now that the truth was out, Rose would leave him.

"Doctor," Rose said gently.

The Doctor looked up at his love, terrified. But then he saw the way she was looking at him – her eyes full of love and adoration. Reassured, he reached out and took her hand. "What I said earlier, I meant every word. I love you."

Rose was almost glowing but tried to keep her excitement under raps. "Well, I don't love you at all," she said teasingly.

The Doctor looked at that adorable face and said only one word before he kissed it.

"Balderdash."

**A/N: **Because I love you all so much, I included a bonus word! The word? _Brobdingnagian - (adj.) of extraordinary size; gigantic; enormous_. I used the word as the name of the alien race. Oh, in the part where Rose says that the Doctor blew up an entire continent, just wanted to let you know that that continent was _uninhabited_. About my dedication of this story to Matt Bomer, I did so because the loopy Doctor on drugs was based on Matt Bomer's portrayal of Neil Caffrey on drugs ... So, anyway, seriously, why haven't you reviewed yet? You were listening to me talk? Oh, sorry! Shutting up now so you can do the important thing - review!


	3. Cacoethes

**A/N: **Here is the third installment of Word of the Day. Sorry it took me so long to post it, but I have a legitimate excuse ... Thanksgiving and all that. Recognition to Fayth3 and her lovely drabble RSPCT. The beginning of this story is sort of inspired by that story.

**Disclaimer: **It is more likely that Captain Jack will become celibate than that I will ever own Doctor Who.

**Word of the Day - Cacoethes**

_Cacoethes – (n.) an irresistible urge; mania_

Blackness. That was all the Doctor could see. He panicked for a minute, wondering what had happened until he realized his eyes were closed. Glad that he was the only one that would ever know about what had just happened, the Doctor relaxed. If his eyes were closed, he must have dozed off and he didn't want to stop dozing. Dozing was nice. Distantly, he heard someone protesting that chichis were fashion designers. The Doctor wondered who that someone was until it hit him – it was Rose! Well, that was a reason to stop dozing! If his eyes were closed, how could he see Rose? So, he opened his eyes. He found himself sitting on the seat in the TARDIS control room and there, a couple of meters away from him was Rose, her hand on the TARDIS console.

Because even being a couple of meters away from Rose was too far, the Doctor tried to get up so he could be closer to her. But he didn't get very far before he felt a sharp pain in his wrist. The Doctor turned his head to investigate it and found that he was handcuffed to the TARDIS!

"Rose," he called out, understandable confused, "what's going on?"

Rose turned towards him, looking apologetic. "This is an intervention. I'm sorry, Doctor, but the TARDIS can't take one more hit with that mallet."

The Doctor glared at Rose as he reached into his pocket and-

"Doctor, give me a little bit of credit," Rose said with a roll of her eyes. "Did you really think I would leave the sonic screwdriver with you?"

The Doctor withdrew his hand from his coat pocket and began to pout. "She's _my _TARDIS," he protested, sulking.

"And she appealed to _me _for help. Now, we've decided that the best way to help her is to get you help." Rose turned away from the Doctor and patted the TARDIS. Almost immediately, the TARDIS column began to move.

"We're moving," the Doctor said incredulously, looking at the column in wonder.

"The TARDIS can pilot herself; she just _allows _you to pilot her- well, _did _allow you. You're kind of banned at the moment ..."

The Doctor returned to sulking and tried to cross his arms across his chest. Unfortunately, he was still cuffed to the seat, so this didn't really work. "Where are we going, anyway?"

Rose looked at her sulking Doctor and repressed her urge to giggle. He was so cute! He looked like a little thwarted child. She needed to repress her urge to jump onto his lap and run her hands through his gorgeous hair- and he was staring at her … What did he say? He had probably asked her a question, probably wondering where they were going … "Utah – the planet, not the state or the constellation."

The Doctor looked confused again. "But Utah's only the home of the Chichis! Why are we going to the planet of fashion authorities?"

"Apparently, it's also the home of ..." Rose began to prepare herself for the Doctor's inevitable explosion, "the universe's greatest psychiatrist."

"Psychiatrist?"

* * *

><p>The Doctor lay on a classic, white, psychiatrist's couch, was handcuffed to the couch leg, and was still sulking (this seemed to be the day for sulking). The psychiatrist had just finished "analyzing" him and now was conferring with Rose.<p>

"I have finished my diagnosis but I believe you both need to hear it at the same time," the psychiatrist told Rose solemnly.

Rose looked at her strangely, wondering why the psychiatrist had brought her all the way over here just to say that, but said, "Alright," anyway.

They both returned to where the Doctor was lying down and sat – the psychiatrist on her little psychiatrist's chair and Rose on the arm of the Doctor's couch. He glared at her when she sat down next to him but she cheerfully ignored him.

"So, Doctor. Rose. I have completed my diagnosis," the psychiatrist announced. "Now, I have some good news and some bad news."

"Could you start with the good news?" the Doctor requested.

"No!" the psychiatrist exclaimed. "I'm going to start with the bad news and then I will tell you what's wrong with you and _then_ I will tell you the good news. Now. The bad news is that for what you have, there is no cure that I can prescribe."

Rose looked at the Doctor with an incredibly worried look on her face. The Doctor, on the other hand, looked completely calm. He obviously didn't believe that there was anything wrong with him, so why should he care that there was no cure?

Speaking to Rose, she continued, "Now, onto my diagnosis. The reason the Doctor is so rough on the TARDIS is twofold. He is not purposely rough on the TARDIS but he is so full of cacoethes, of mania, that he can not really control his self. Now, normally, this would not cause him to go around hitting his TARDIS, but he is also filled with unresolved tension and so is acting out-"

"Hey!" the Doctor interrupted heatedly. "I am _not _acting out!"

The psychiatrist turned to him and gave him a look that could have frozen hell over. Then she turned back to Rose. "And you, my dear, are the cause of this tension."

This took Rose by surprise. "What?" she asked and then looked at the Doctor, who had sat up straight on his couch despite being cuffed to it, to see his reaction. He wasn't looking at her. Instead, he was looking at the psychiatrist, terrified. Very confused, Rose turned back to the psychiatrist.

"He is in love with you."

"No!" the Doctor exclaimed, looking anguished. "No! Why did you have to- Now she's gonna-"

"Doctor," Rose said quietly.

The Doctor was silenced and looked at her, terrified.

"Do you love me?"

He wanted to lie – tell her that he didn't. Maybe she wouldn't leave him if he did lie. But the Doctor couldn't lie to Rose, no matter how much he wanted to. "Yes. I'm sorry, Rose. But don't leave me – I won't let it change things between us. I'll-"

The Doctor's speech was getting faster and shriller. For everyone's good, she had to sacrifice herself and shut him up. No, who was she kidding? It wasn't a sacrifice. She _wanted _to do this. Rose leaped forward and kissed the babbling Doctor on the lips.

He shut up.

When they finally broke apart, Rose looked lovingly into the Doctor's eyes and said, "You daft alien – why didn't you want to tell me?"

"I thought you would leave me."

"I'll never leave you – you're _my _rude and not-ginger alien! Where could I get another?" Rose's tongue poked out from between her teeth and the Doctor couldn't resist – he pulled her back in for a kiss.

"I love you, too," Rose managed to whisper between kisses.

The psychiatrist never got to tell them the good news – that neither of them would really care that there wasn't a cure – but that's probably why she saved it for last. She knew they'd figure it out on their own.

* * *

><p>A couple of hours later, the Doctor and Rose finally made it back to the TARDIS. When she saw the Doctor grinning at Rose naughtily while swinging a pair of handcuffs around, she smiled to herself. Her plan had worked. The Doctor's rubber mallet had never really hurt her – he couldn't hurt <em>her<em>! She was the TARDIS! But she had needed an excuse to get them to a psychiatrist, who could get what they felt deep down inside out into the open. If she hadn't gotten the fact that Rose and the Doctor loved each other out, no one would of. Honestly, they really couldn't do _anything _with out her!

**A/N: **I love the TARDIS and she loved this story! Did you like it? Oh, and by the way, there was a bonus word included in this story - can you find it? Review, please! Review!


	4. Deadpan

**A/N: **The next installment of Word of the Day? Just what the Doctor ordered ...

**Disclaimer: **Yes, I own Doctor Who. What? How did you know that I'm schizophrenic?

**Word of the Day - Deadpan**

_Deadpan – (n.) marked by or accomplished with a careful pretense of seriousness or calm detachment_

The Doctor and Rose walked hand in hand through the market place of Callacutam, the most peaceful planet in the universe. The people of Callacutam loved peacefulness so much, they had _laws_ requiring everyone to be peaceful. They even saturated the air with relaxing chemicals that made it practically impossible not to be peaceful. The peacefulness was the very reason that the Doctor had brought them to Callacutam in the first place, but now the Doctor had a problem. It was too peaceful. There were no people to save, no wars to stop, no running to do, and the Doctor was bored.

"Doctor," Rose said solemnly, "let's stay here forever, okay? It's so peaceful; we'd never have to do anything dangerous ever again."

The Doctor looked at Rose in horror. "No, Rose, you don't mean that! That's the chemicals in the air talking!"

Rose stared solemnly at the Doctor for a couple of seconds and then burst out laughing. "Ha! Gotch ya!"

The Doctor grinned at her. "You, Rose Tyler, have an excellent deadpan. Not as good as mine, of course. Mine is brilliant. But still, it's pretty good."

"Excuse me, _Doctor_, but I can out deadpan you any day!"

"Is that a challenge I hear?" the Doctor asked in a Scottish accent, waggling his eyebrows at Rose.

"Why yes, sir, I believe it is," Rose replied in her most prim and proper voice before beginning to giggle again.

"Alright then! Here's what we'll do – we each have till the end of the day to prove who has the best deadpan. We each have to say several statements and the other person has to decide whether it's true or not." the Doctor winked at Rose. "So, _Rose Tyler_, are you ready?"

Rose gave him a _look_. "The game's afoot!"

* * *

><p>"Rose, did you know that Arnold Schwarzenegger really was from the future just like he pretended to be in <span>The Terminator<span>?"

Rose looked at the Doctor carefully before pronouncing, "You're lying."

"What?" The Doctor looked astounded. "How did you know?"

"When you tell someone something really interesting, you get excited and when you get excited, your eyes get really wide but your pupils don't get any smaller. However, when you're lying, you're eyes still get wide because you're tying to convince the other person that you're excited, but your pupils dial-ate because you're not really excited." Rose then blushed, embarrassed that she'd let him know how well she knew him.

"Wow," the Doctor commented, completely amazed at how well Rose knew him. There was no way that he knew her that well (he totally knew her that well). He couldn't know her that well because if he did then it would mean that he was infatuated and he definitely was not. Time Lords didn't get _infatuated_ (well, maybe not usually, but he wasn't exactly a _usual_ Time Lord and he most certainly was infatuated).

Anyway, if Rose knew him that well, did that mean that she was infatuated too? Wait, no, scratch the too. _He_ wasn't infatuated. But was she? No, she couldn't be. How could Rose Tyler, the Valiant Child, be infatuated with him, the Destroyer of Worlds?

* * *

><p>"So, when I was younger- this is really embarrassing, so don't laugh- I had the hugest crush on Aaron Carter," Rose announced.<p>

"Now you're lying," the Doctor concluded, smiling.

"How could you tell?" Rose asked, mystified and a little bit put out. She had controlled all of her tells that the Doctor had told her about though out the day. She hadn't shifted her weight to her right foot or touched her ring finger with her pinkie and she hadn't even let the right side of her mouth twitch!

"When you lie, the tip of you nose gets pink."

Rose had fooled the Doctor earlier in the day because he wasn't paying attention but he most certainly was paying attention now and he'd amazed her again. That man knew her so well! How did he know her so well? She knew him just as well – she knew that when he lied his pupils got smaller, the hair on the back of his "manly hand" stood up a little, and his voice got a little higher – but that was because she was completely in love with him. He couldn't be in love with her! She was just Rose Tyler, former shop girl. How could the Doctor, Lord of Time, be in love with her, council child?

* * *

><p>"Alright," Rose giggled, "You're not going to believe this, but … I used to absolutely hate chips."<p>

Desperate for a sign that Rose was lying, the Doctor searched her face frantically but couldn't find anything. "Rassilion! You're serious!" He was horrified.

"I know! Isn't it awful? I'm so ashamed of myself!"

Rose and the Doctor laughed as they sat down on a very convenient bench. They were having so much fun that when the Doctor felt that it was his turn to say something shocking but true, he didn't really pay attention to what he was saying. He just said something. But when he listened to what he had just said, it turned out that he had spilled his biggest secret of all. A secret so secret, he barely even recognized it himself.

"I love you," he said.

As soon as he said it, the Doctor knew it to be true, but he still wished he hadn't said it because he didn't want Rose to leave him. He wished he could pretend that he was just joking. But while his face was completely straight and with anyone else, he would have been able to fool them into thinking that he was just kidding (after all, his deadpan was brilliant), his Rose knew him too well. She would know that this time, he was telling the truth. The Doctor only hoped that she wasn't disgusted with him for his presumption.

Rose, on the other hand, was frantically checking the Doctor for any of his tells, not daring to let herself believe him. But she could tell that he was completely sincere – the Doctor, a _Time Lord_, loved her, a _shop girl_. It was completely unbelievable, but Rose thought about all the times the Doctor had grabbed her hand and the way he looked into her eyes and she allowed herself to accept it. That was the great thing about Rose Tyler – she didn't waste her time protesting that unbelievable things couldn't be true.

Rose began to smile. "I love you too."

She wasn't lying – that was easy to tell. That meant she wasn't pushing him away! Ecstatic, the Doctor pulled Rose in for a kiss. Their lips met and it was wonderful, like the melding of two minds that were meant for each other.

The Doctor tried to deepen the kiss but Rose broke away, saying, "If this goes any further here, we are going to be locked up for not being peaceful. I think this is something that should be continued in the TARDIS ..."

"Quite right too," the Doctor replied, winking at her.

As the pair of them walked hand in hand back to the TARDIS, the inhabitants of Callacutam could here them carrying on a very strange conversation -

"Rose, you know how I pretended that Arnold Schwarzenegger really was from the future earlier?"

"Yeah ..."

"Well – even though he's not from the future, he is an alien ..."

The inhabitants of Callacutam would wonder who Arnold Schwarzenegger (strange name) and that pair were for the rest of their lives. They would also wonder who had ended up with the honor of having the better deadpan. But you know, no one ever found out who had the better deadpan. Rose and the Doctor really weren't the best judges of each other (they were soul mates, after all). And at the end of the day, it's highly unlikely that either of them really cared. They had _far_ more important things to think about …

**A/N: **Hope you enjoyed it! Please review! Oh, and the bonus word in the last chapter was _chichi - (adj.) affectedly trendy_. I used it for the name of the alien race.


	5. Eleemosynary

**A/N:** I would like to dedicate this story to PhoenixWormwood137. Thanks for all the wonderful reviews and PMs full of encouragement! I hope you (and everyone else) enjoys this!

**Disclaimer: **"HA! I own Doctor Who! Wait, are those- OH MY GOSH! DALEKS! HELP! THEY'RE GOING TO-" ... and so, the moral of the story is, don't even think about trying to own Doctor Who. The Daleks will get you.

**Word of the Day - Eleemosynary  
><strong>

_Eleemosynary – (adj.) of or for charity; charitable_

This was all his fault. Of course, she would never have snapped at him if she hadn't been annoyed but she only became so annoyed because he was so incredibly thick, so the fight was still his fault. Seriously, he belonged in Thickainia with Mr. Thick-thickity the clock robot and his dad.

It had all started earlier that day. Once again, the Doctor had been completely oblivious to the fact that Rose wanted their flirting to go farther than it usually did. She wanted it to mean something. Of course, as soon as things had begun to get serious, the Doctor had broken away, oblivious to the fact she was trying to communicate to him. Normally, Rose would've shrugged off her frustration, but apparently, Rose had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed that morning because she let the Doctor's thickness get to her. She became annoyed and grumpy and the Doctor, completely confused by her change in attitude, thought frantically of places or times he could take her to that would improve her mood.

He settled for Morrillia – a simple common planet inhabited by simple common green slugs and mauve people with no ears. It was just a little planet where nothing ever happened but everyone there was happy. The Doctor hoped that maybe their happiness would rub off on Rose.

The TARDIS materialized on Morrillia and the Doctor tried to lead Rose out but, while Rose did come out, she refused the Doctor's hand. Even though this action left him a little hurt, he persevered and over the next few hours, took Rose all over Morrillia's capital city, Flim. Normally, they would've had a grand time – laughing, holding hands, and looking into each other's smiling eyes – but today, all Rose could do was frown.

Finally, she was just done with everything. "I want to go visit my mum," Rose announced.

Usually, when Rose combined _that_ look with _that_ sentence, the Doctor would sigh inwardly and then grant her request as quickly as he could. But the Doctor had had an unbelievably rough day and wasn't paying attention to the warning signs. "Aw, Rose – do we have to? I don't think I'm quite up for that."

Rose turned on him with an incredibly dangerous look on her face. She couldn't believe what she was hearing! On top of everything else, he was going after her mother! "Oi! What's wrong with my mum?" she asked him to see if he had really been saying what she thought he'd been saying.

The Doctor wasn't looking at Rose, so he completely missed the glint in her eye and the dangerous set of her mouth. He ran his hand through his hair distractedly. "Rose, there simply aren't words to describe your mother," he said with a sigh. Then, he reeled back as a hand came out of no where and collided with his face in a magnificent slap. It was then that the Doctor remembered what a bad mood Rose had been in and what he had just said and he knew that he was in trouble.

"That is so like you! What did my mum ever do to you that you didn't deserve?" Rose's voice began to get higher and louder and people/slugs on the side of the street were beginning to stare.

"Ok, Rose, I'm sorry. Jus- just calm down ..."

That sentence really didn't help matters. "Oh, so you want me to calm down? Well, tell me this – WHY SHOULD I CALM DOWN?"

Just then, a little girl (with no ears) came up to the Doctor and tugged on his sleeve. "Sir," she said in an adorable little voice, "would you like to donate to Hartman's Eleemosynary Institute for Children?"

"Uh, sure- but, hold on. I'm doing something just now. Just give me a second-"

"OH!" Rose exclaimed furiously. "And now you're turning a child away? What kind of man are you?"

"I-" the Doctor began but was interrupted by a woman rushing over and leading the child away.

"Now, now, sweets," she said to the child, "you ought to know better than to interrupt a couple when they're in the middle of a domestic."

As soon as he heard that, the Doctor protested, "We are _not_ in the middle of a domestic!"

"Yeah," Rose agreed sarcastically, "'cause there actually has to be something between a couple for it to be called a domestic! But of course, there could never be anything between us because Mr. Brilliant Time Lord over there is too _thick_ to see what's going on right under his nose!"

At that sentence, time stood still. That was one of the great things about being a Time Lord – sometimes, when you really needed it to, time really did stand still so that you had a little more time to think. The Doctor was making full use of his thinking time at that moment. He looked over the entire day and thought back to the time when Rose first became grumpy – what had they been doing? Oh, they'd been … uh, flirting. Ahem, well, was that why Rose was mad at him? That would make sense – he could understand her not wanting anything more with him – that was why he had broken away from her in the first place.

Just then, what Rose had just said popped into his head - _"But of course, there could never be anything between us because Mr. Brilliant Time Lord over here is too _thick_ to see what's going on right under his nose!"_

In that moment, the Doctor's brilliant mind connected everything together and he finally knew what was bothering Rose. Time began to move again and he said to Rose, "Do you mean to tell me that instead of spending hours breaking my back to show you the sights, I only had to do one little thing that I've wanted to do since I met you and you would've been perfectly happy again?"

Rose's face changed from annoyed to adorably confused to hopeful. As the Doctor strode towards her purposefully, took her into his arms, and kissed her, her face became ecstatic.

"I love you, Rose Tyler," he whispered into her ear. "I would have told you so much sooner, but I didn't think you wanted me to."

"Of course I wanted you to tell me! I love you too." Rose smiled and her tongue peeped out from between her teeth. "But you finally figured that out in the end, didn't you? Perhaps you're not as thick as I thought you were!"

"Hey!" the Doctor protested. "I'm not thick at all – I'm brilliant! You're going to pay for that ..." and with that threat, he grabbed her hand and pulled her back to the TARDIS. They only had half a day left in which to try so many new things that were now open to them. They were going to be very busy ...

**A/N:** Review quickly! The first person who reviews gets to give me an extra two word prompt to go along with the word I've already got picked out for the next chapter. Thanks for reading!


	6. Frabjous

**A/N: **Because daughterofapollo18 was the first person to review the last chapter, she gave me an extra two word prompt to go along with the day's word. Her prompt was "crocodile tears". I personally had a lot of fun writing this, so I really hope you enjoy reading it.

**Disclaimer: **This is the Doctor speaking. This writer here has "borrowed" me for the time being. That's fine. But I must say one thing – she does NOT own me. She is not nearly brilliant enough to own me. In fact there is NO ONE that could possibly own me besides myself. Wait, what- Oh. Ahem. The writer next to me just wanted to remind me of … Rose. I don't really see what Rose has to do with this. She and I- well, we're just … uh, very good friends … What? Why do I need to read the story bel- Oh. Right. Alright, this writer here does not own me. I don't really own myself either. I belong completely to Rose Tyler. There, you happy?

**Word of the Day - Frabjous**

_Frabjous – (adj.) wonderful, elegant, superb, or delicious_

The Doctor and Rose stared across the TARDIS' kitchen table at each other in deep concentration. What they were doing was incredibly important and neither of them could mess up. The fate of the banana chocolate cake in the fridge was to be decided by this – the arm wrestling match of the century, no matter what century they happened to be in.

Of course, the thing about this match was that it wasn't fair. Rose was pretty strong, but the Doctor was a _Time Lord,_ for Pete's sake, and had "superior biology", so of course, he was a lot stronger. The only reason Rose had lasted this long was because the Doctor was toying with her – letting her try everything she could before he finally crushed her.

Normally, Rose wouldn't have minded losing and would have taken a loss with good grace. But today, there was this absolutely divine banana chocolate cake (a cake so wonderful, the Doctor had described it as _frabjous_) at stake that Rose had to win. And so, Rose had to do something she abhorred – she had to cheat. She had to find someway to distract the Doctor so that she could win.

At that moment, the Doctor increased the pressure on her arm. Seizing that opportunity, Rose let out a small cry of pain and let a single tear fall from her eyes.

Unfortunately, the Doctor was not at all moved by her performance. "Rose, I'm not going to be fooled by your crocodile tears. That cake is mine."

_Darn it_, thought Rose as she stuck out her tongue. _Alright, so Plan J failed … he is proving really hard to crack. Well, on to Plan K. If this doesn't work, nothing will. _

Plan K was a very daring plan and Rose had hoped that she would never have to use it because she didn't know if the Doctor was ready for it. However, desperate times call for desperate measures and this was certainly a desperate time. She _had_ to get that cake.

So, Rose leaned across the table and kissed her Doctor squarely and fully on the lips. And the Doctor, who hadn't been phased by jokes, fake screams, or crocodile tears, completely let down his guard as he processed what that kiss could mean.

In that moment, Rose broke the kiss and slammed the Doctor's arm down on the table. "Ha!" she exclaimed triumphantly as she jumped up. "I get the cake! But maybe … if you're _really_ nice to me ... I _might_ share."

The Doctor didn't reply and so, Rose turned to see what he was doing. He hadn't moved. The Doctor was still sitting at the table and seemed frozen in place.

This was a problem. Rose had known he wasn't ready for what she had inadvertently shown him in that kiss. The thing was, Rose loved the Doctor so much and she knew that he loved her even though he hadn't realized it yet. Well, he was realizing it now as her kiss woke things up in him. Rose felt kind of guilty for forcing this awareness on him instead of easing him into it, but it was all for the best, right? Once he got over the shock of it, he wouldn't have to be alone anymore and she wouldn't have to go to bed each night frustrated by a Romeo who seemed to have forgotten that he loved Juliet.

Well, all Rose could do now was wait. She got out a plate, put a piece of her cake on it, and sat down in front of the Doctor, watching, waiting, and eating cake.

Fortunately, she didn't have to wait too long. When Rose was about halfway done with her cake, the Doctor suddenly shook himself out of his trance and looked at Rose with wide eyes.

"You kissed me!" he exclaimed.

"Yep."

"You cheated! That's my cake!"

"What?" Now Rose was confused. Yes, she had cheated but- "I just kissed you and all you can think about is cake?"

The Doctor scowled at her. "That's my cake."

Rose scowled right back at him. "Well too bad! I'm already eating! You can't get it now."

The Doctor just raised an eyebrow at her and then quickly leaned in and kissed her long and hard, savoring the taste of Rose mixed with the faint taste of banana chocolate cake. As he pulled away, he looked at Rose's shocked face smugly. "Mmmhh. I told you that that cake was frabjous. And I was also right in thinking that it would taste better with a little bit of Rose mixed in."

At that moment, the enormous gall of the Doctor was revealed to Rose and she looked at him, completely astounded. "Why you- You _knew_ I was going to kiss you! You planned this entire thing! You got that cake _knowing_ that I would cheat, when I couldn't win the arm wresting match, to get it. Somehow, you knew I would kiss you to distract you and then you let me win! You waited till I had eaten some cake before you 'woke up' and kissed me! W-why?"

"Well … I knew that if you kissed me, that, on top of everything else, would prove that you love brilliant me!"

Rose scrunched her nose up at him. "Fine, but don't look so smug, mister. I've known for _forever_ that _you_ love me. I just didn't think that you knew it yourself."

The Doctor looked at her tenderly and said, "How could I not be aware that I was in love with you, Rose? It's the most brilliant thing I've ever felt." Then, he moved to her side and kissed her, sweetly this time.

"You know," he said, much later, "that cake is _nothing_ compared to the brilliantly frabjous taste of Rose Tyler."

"You really love that word, don't you?" Rose asked laughingly.

"Why, yes. Yes I do."

**A/N: **Well, you know the drill … Review, please, and you'll get some of that banana chocolate cake!


	7. Gimcrack

**A/N: **I'm so sorry I haven't updated in so long! But I was sick, had a crazy basketball schedule, and lost my notebook in which I write all my stories. So, to make up for it, here is the longest chapter yet! Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **"Own Doctor Who or Harry Potter, I do not," I say, as I channel Yoda. Read to find out why I included Harry Potter in the disclaimer ...

**Word of the Day - Gimcrack**

_Gimcrack – (n.) A showy but useless or worthless object; a gewgaw_

Even though the Doctor didn't "do" domestics, even the TARDIS had to go through spring cleaning. Mind you, the Doctor didn't instigate this cleaning. Oh, no. It was Rose. As happy-go-lucky as Rose was, there was still enough Jackie Tyler in her that she felt the need to do a big clean up once a year. But when she mentioned the fact that it was about time for a spring cleaning to the Doctor, he quickly objected.

"We're in the Vortex! There isn't any spring here!"

Rose rolled her eyes. "Doctor, it's spring somewhere."

So, the Doctor was finally maneuvered into cleaning the TARDIS. He wined and moaned and gnashed his teeth, but this was one terror he couldn't escape. If anyone but the TARDIS had been there, the TARDIS would have been filled with laughter as they saw Rose tear through the TARDIS like a whirlwind, surprisingly leaving sparkling cleanliness, organization, and a bewildered Doctor in her wake.

By day 6 of Rose's spring cleaning reign, they had made it back to the closets in the depths of the TARDIS where the Doctor kept all of the "treasures" he had collected in his travels. Rose was utterly amazed by all the stuff the Doctor had. Every little item that she saw had to be explained to her and so, while they did not get much cleaning done, the Doctor and Rose had a wonderful time.

Eventually, they reached a door labeled "gimcracks". Rose looked at it in confusion and asked the Doctor what the heck that meant.

"Oh, that's just an old word for interesting looking but useless stuff," the Doctor replied airily.

Rose looked at the door with renewed interest. "Well, that sounds like fun," she said brightly before opening the door, walking into the room, and pulling the Doctor in behind her.

Immediately, a bright light flooded the gimcrack room, revealing the piles of very interesting stuff that were all over the room.

"Doctor," Rose exclaimed, "you've got _a lot_ of junk!"

"Hey!" the Doctor protested. "Don't diss my collection!"

Rose just laughed and then prepared to have some fun. She reached into a pile and then pulled out a beautiful crystal object with jewels on it that looked like a snowflake. "What's this?" she asked the Doctor.

"Oh, that?" The Doctor looked amused. "That is a mnemonikli. It causes the bearer to forget the last thing they were talking about."

Rose looked at the Doctor, interested, but then, her eyes became unfocused. A second later, she shook her head and then looked at the Doctor, confused. "What was I going to say?" She then noticed that she was holding something. "What the- oh! Isn't this pretty? A little showy, but anyway … What is it, Doctor?"

Smiling, the Doctor replied, "It doesn't matter."

"But I want to know!" she protested.

"You'll only forget everything I say."

"No I won't. I- wait, what were we talking about? Oh, how beautiful! Doctor, what is this?" Rose asked as she held out the mnemonikli.

Getting tired of being in a constant state of déjà vu, the Doctor snatched the gimcrack from Rose's hand and threw it behind him. "Oh, just junk."

"Hey! I was looking at that!"

"Rose, that was a mnemonikli. It was causing you to forget what it was every time I explained it to you."

"Oh," Rose said sheepishly. "Well, that must've been annoying ..." Then she noticed a clear glass sphere on the top of the pile next to her. Picking it up, she turned to the Doctor. "So, what's this one?" she asked and then gasped as the inside filled with red smoke.

The Doctor burst out laughing and couldn't seem to stop. "That's … a … re-remembrall," he gasped between paroxysms of laughter. "It-it turns … r-red … when you've … f-forgotten … something ..."

"Well of course I've forgotten something! I was just holding the … oh!" She burst out laughing as she realized how completely useless the remembrall was.

A couple of minutes later, the ridiculousness lost its novelty and Rose looked around for something else interesting to look at. She noticed a blue tie that looked perfect for the Doctor, grabbed it, and before the Doctor knew what she was doing, threw it around his neck.

"Why have you been hiding this in here? It's perfect for you!"

The Doctor didn't answer, but instead, stood there as if in a daze.

Rose began to get worried. "D-Doctor? What's wrong?"

All of the sudden, the Doctor dropped onto all fours. "My Rose, my Rose, my Rose, my Rose! Pet me, pet me, pet me- bacon!"

Now Rose was seriously weirded out. But she wasn't going to pass up the chance to be allowed to run her hands through his hair. She petted him a couple of times and then squatted down beside him and watched him lean his head into her hand, looking blissful. "That's really weird, Doctor. You're acting … like a puppy ..."

Shaking her head at how weird everything in this room was, Rose took the tie off the Doctor. Immediately, the Doctor snapped out of it.

"Seriously, Doctor? Seriously? A tie that makes you act like a puppy?" She smiled.

"Yeah. That's why it's in this room ..." The Doctor looked petulant after realizing that he had made a fool of himself, but he couldn't resist Rose's smiling face for long and soon broke into a grin himself. "Come on, maybe we should go … clean … somewhere else." He wanted to get them out of this room before anything else happened.

But Rose hadn't learned her lesson. "Hang on a second – what does this do?" she inquired as she picked up an absolutely gaudy, golden scepter. A second later, she started jumping up and down on one foot. "D-Doctor? What's going on?" she asked as she hopped.

The Doctor looked at Rose smugly. "I told you that we should have left. Now you won't be able to stop hopping until you spill your darkest secret. That scepter is a veratorum. It will keep increasing the things you have to do until you tell someone your secret."

As soon as the Doctor said that, Rose started patting the top of her head as well as hopping on one foot.

"What?" Rose exclaimed. "I can't tell you my greatest secret! Can't you sonic this or something?"

The Doctor said nothing and just continued to look incredibly smug. If Rose hadn't been otherwise occupied, she would have tried out a Jackie Tyler on him.

"Fine – be that way!" she said angrily. She was beginning to panic. She was getting really tired from all the jumping but she couldn't tell the Doctor her secret. The universe might implode or something! She would have to make something up that was believable and would shock the Doctor to get him back for being such an unhelpful, insufferable Time Lord.

"Alright, I didn't want to _ever_ tell you this, but … Jack and I shagged," she finished, all in a rush.

The Doctor's face went completely blank. He felt as though someone had punched him in the stomach until Rose's hopping speed doubled and she started hopping in a circle. Then he began to laugh. "Did I mention that if you lie, whatever you're doing get's three times harder?"

"Ugh! Fine!" Rose yelled. "Fine! I give up! I love you! I love the Doctor! Are you happy?"

The world stood still just as it had when she had told him that she had shagged Jack. But this time, it was for a very good reason. Dazed by her revelation, the Doctor said, "Ecstatic," in a dull voice, still in shock.

Rose heaved a sigh of relief as she was able to stop hopping. Then, she looked at the Doctor, slightly hurt by his unenthusiastic response.

Noticing Rose's hurt look, the Doctor snapped out of it and exclaimed, "I mean, completely overjoyed! I mean it, Rose, I really do. I love you, Rose Tyler," trying to show his sincerity with every word. But he could tell she didn't believe him, he could tell that she thought he was just being nice. So, to prove that he, a Time Lord, had fallen completely and utterly in love with her, the Doctor strode forward, took Rose into his arms, and snogged her.

When they broke apart a couple of minutes later, Rose gasped, "Alright, I believe you!" Then she smiled, "You're really stuck with me now!"

"I know," the Doctor said ruefully as he noticed where they were standing. "This is a Bethuzian sticking rug. We won't be able to leave each other's side for the next 24 hours."

"You know, that's not a bad thing," Rose remarked, seductively. "I can think of lots of _things_ we can do when we're stuck together ..."

"Oi, get your mind out of the gutter! You must've gotten that from Jack," the Doctor complained.

"So, does that mean you don't want me to do things like this?" Rose said as she moved in to kiss the Doctor long and hard.

That caused the Doctor to change his mind. "Never mind," he murmured. "Stay where you are. I think I like this gutter."

**A/N: **I know, I know. The remembrall is from Harry Potter, but I couldn't resist using it. I've always thought that the remembrall was rather useless ... First person to review gets to give me a two word prompt for the next chapter!


	8. Hypnagogic

**A/N:** Yay! The longest one yet! For this story, pedomellonammino had the first review and so, was able to give an extra prompt. The prompt? Armageddon and vivid. Now, I've been reading a lot of stories about a _certain eppisode _lately and I guess it influenced my muse because when I sat down to write this, this is what my muse came up with. It's not very comical - I mean, it's got some funny parts in the beginning and the end, but the middle is very angst filled. Don't worry, the next chapter will be full of humor but I think we needed to feel some of the Doctor's pain, just once.

**Disclaimer: **I don't think I could handle owning the Doctor. It would be way too complicated ...

**Word of the Day - Hypnagogic**

_Hypnagogic – (adj.) of, pertaining to, or occurring in the state of drowsiness preceding sleep._

The Doctor sat in a very comfy leather chair in the library, reading the book _Armageddon_ and trying very hard not to fall asleep. But that was kind of hard because the book wasn't very interesting and he was _really_ tired. The book could have been riveting, he supposed, to a human, but for someone who was an "alien", a book about little green men, with ray guns that could erase you from time and watches that allowed them to relive all of their mistakes and fix them, invading Earth and causing the end of the world was just preposterous, ridiculous, and therefore, boring. _Seriously, do people actually believe this dribble? _The Doctor had thought to himself earlier. _Honestly, a watch that allows you to cross your own time line?_

Nevertheless, he had continued to read the book, hoping it would help him stay awake. Obviously, he had hoped in vain. He was drifting off.

But he couldn't fall asleep now! Rose was still awake! She might find him asleep and then he'd never hear the end of it. She'd talk about how she'd finally solved one of the universe's great mysteries – what a Time Lord looks like when he sleeps. She'd take pictures and while she couldn't post them on Facebook, he knew she'd be quite willing to show them to all of their alien aware friends, like Sarah Jane. The Doctor could not let this happen! He had to battle his drowsiness. But his eyes were already closing.

_Maybe this book will get more interesting. But I won't know unless I stay awake. Oh, who am I kidding? This book is crap. It's just going to _put _me to sleep if I read anymore. Maybe, I should get up and tinker with the TARDIS. Or- or I could go eat a banana … _The Doctor began to sit up and tried to open his eyes but they were too heavy. _No, that would_ _mean getting up. I'll just stay _here _and not go to sleep. Maybe I should think of Rose … NO! Then I will want to dream of things I'm NOT ALOWED TO DO – like licking h- NO! Bad Time Lord! You've got to find a different way to st- _His head sank on to his chest. _Whoa! Got to- to stay awa- aw- No! I'm a Time Lord! I will control my baser instincts! I will not- will not- _And with that, the superior Time Lord slept.

* * *

><p>Unbeknownst to the Doctor, in his hypnagogic state, he had not just been thinking those thoughts. He had accidentally been saying them aloud. And Rose, who had already been looking for the Doctor, heard his drowsy mutterings as she passed the library and poked her head in. When she saw the Doctor on the edge of sleep, she felt a thrill of victory. Finally! Here was proof that the Doctor could and would sleep!<p>

As she listened to his little lecture to his drowsy self, she had to repress her urges to alternately laugh and squeal with joy. So he wanted to lick her, eh? Hmm …

At the point where he told himself that he _would_ control his "baser instincts", she nearly lost it. It seemed that even the all powerful Doctor could not control the needs of his body.

When he finally dropped off, Rose tiptoed in and went to sit on the ottoman in front of the Doctor's chair so that she could be there to gloat when he woke up. But then she looked at his sleeping face and her heart melted at what she saw – he was peaceful. The Doctor, who held the weight of the universe on his shoulders without any help, looked as carefree and innocent as a slumbering child. Rose took out her phone and snapped a picture of this precious moment, so that she could remember it forever.

Just after she did, the Doctor snored. Rose grinned broadly as she opened up a special function on her phone. This was too good an opportunity to pass up.

* * *

><p><em>The Doctor grinned across the room at Rose, as millions of Cybermen and Daleks were pulled into the void, simply from the sheer joy of being alive and of having her with him. He had nearly lost her today to the closed off, other universe. But she had come back and had told him that she was never going to leaving him. And the whole experience had been like a slap in the face – a wake up call. When this was all over, he would tell Rose that he loved her. It didn't matter that it would make the loss he would feel at her eventual death all the more intense when it came. He needed to tell her. He didn't want to feel the same regret he had felt when he had sent her away. He was going to tell her and they were going to be okay.<em>

_ But just as the Doctor thought that, the Unspeakable Law had it's revenge and the lever holding open the void on Rose's side slipped. The opening started to close, so Rose reached forward to pull the lever back. But she couldn't reach it and so, she had to let go of her clamp in order to pull the lever back to it's proper position. The Doctor looked on, terrified, but he didn't ask her to stop. He knew that if she had to make the choice between her life and the safety of Earth, she would choose Earth every time, no matter how hard he begged her not to._

_ Rose was able to lock the lever again. But this caused the suction of the void to resume in full force and Rose was only holding on to the lever. And she was slipping._

_ The Doctor watched her, horrified. _Just hold on for a couple more seconds, _he pleaded silently._

_ But she couldn't. She finally lost her grip. He screamed her name, _Rose_, as she fell towards the void. They yelled for each other, both already feeling the agony of their loss._

_ Just as the Doctor was about to make the decision to let go of the clamp and follow Rose into the void, Pete materialized, caught Rose, and dematerialized just as Rose looked back towards her Doctor._

_ The void closed a second later and the Doctor was left all alone, a look of disbelief on his face which quickly went blank out of habit as he fought to control the agony he felt inside._

_ It seemed like years, but really, it was only hours later, that he was burning up a sun just to get two minutes to tell her goodbye properly. He was so tempted to come through the cracks all the way to Rose and damn the consequences, but he couldn't. All he could do was tell her what he'd been meaning to for years._

_ "I l-" Rose sobbed, "I _love_ you."_

_ "Quite right, too," the Doctor replied, his voice almost breaking. "And I suppose, if it's my last chance to say it … Rose Tyler-" and the connection ended._

_ The Doctor stood alone in the TARDIS, tears coursing down his cheeks. He would never get to say it. This had been his one last chance and he had blown it. He again felt that regret that had plagued him earlier, only now, he was stuck with it. Rose Tyler couldn't come back this time and save him. He was left here, alone, forever, his hearts utterly empty._

* * *

><p>Rose had been having fun just watching the Doctor sleep, but when he had started tossing and turning, she had started to feel uneasy. When tears started falling from his still closed eyes and he moaned her name anguishedly, she knew something was wrong and began to shake him awake.<p>

"Doctor! Doctor, it's alright. You were just dreaming," Rose told him as his eyes snapped open and he gasped like a fish out of water. Then, his eyes focused on Rose.

_She's still alive and- and here!_ he thought. And he now knew why he had had that dream. The Doctor knew it was a warning. It had been so vivid and specific, he knew what he had seen was the future from one of their time lines. Maybe it had just been brought on by reading _Armageddon_, but losing Rose would end his world and he wasn't going to take it lightly. The Doctor was not going to continue making the same mistake he'd been making.

"Rose," he said, tears still streaming down his cheeks.

"Yes, Doctor?" Rose answered, worriedly.

"I love you."

"What?" she exclaimed, completely surprised.

"In my dream, I lost you and I- I had never taken the time to tell you that I l-love you," he told her, a look of pain passing over his face as he remembered being alone.

"Oh, Doctor," Rose breathed, slightly in shock that her dreams were finally coming true, "I love you, too." She then leaned forward and took the Doctor into her arms, held his head to her chest, and pressed a kiss into his hair, trying to comfort him.

Eventually, the tears stopped coming and the Doctor and Rose both sat up. Rose was unsure of what was to happen next in their relationship, but the Doctor wasn't. He leaned forward and kissed Rose long and hard.

When they finally separated, Rose said, "I guess this changes everything," with a little sigh of happiness.

"Oh, yes!" the Doctor agreed happily. But because he was very easily distracted, he changed the subject almost immediately when he saw Rose's phone. "Hey, why is your phone out?"

"Oh, um ..." Rose had completely forgotten that she had been filming him before things had gotten bad. Now that she was reminded of that, she picked up her phone and began backing away from the Doctor. "Well, you snore."

"I do not!" the Doctor protested indignantly.

"You do and … I've got evidence." She waved her phone in the air.

"You didn't," the Doctor gasped.

"I did."

"Why you little-" the Doctor growled as he jumped up and began to chase the now fleeing Rose. "When I catch up with you, you and I are both going to enjoy what happens!"

For some strange reason, Rose seemed to lose speed and the Doctor caught up with her soon after wards. And she didn't seem to mind when he took her phone. This was for two reasons. One, she was really looking forward to what the Doctor was going to do. Two, she had already sent the video to her mother. While the Doctor didn't know that now, he would find out pretty soon and she couldn't wait to find out what her "punishment" would be.

**A/N: **So, there it is ... I hope you enjoyed it. By the way, the Unspeakable Law is in the same set as Sod's Law and basically says that if you mention something bad, it happens and if you mention something good, it goes away. Anyway, please review and tell me what you thought of the angst. Happy chapter up next!


	9. Irrefragable

**A/N: **Well, this took a while to finally post, but it's here. The last chapter was angst filled, but this is complete crack, so enjoy! Oh, and let's just assume that all of these chapters are AU, because if the Doctor and Rose admit that they're in love, the entire story get's changed. Which means, that certain characters can return earlier than they're supposed to. I'd like to dedicate this chapter to everyone who has reviewed this story - Runner5115, xRDJ603, pedomellonaminno, PhoenixWormwood137, Derpy Whooves, seriously preoccupied, PinkSugarHeartAttacku, daughterofapollo18, Gates Hale, V Evergreen, iulik, ZoZe, Gred And Forge's Girl, MaryMatthesen, Winter-Wonderlands, and Terra Young. Thank you so much for all the support and lovin' you've given me! Happy New Year! And for those of you who have periods in your pen name, I had to take them out 'cause fanfiction wouldn't allow them. Sorry!

**Disclaimer: **Jack wants to own the Doctor and Jackie has no wish to own the Doctor - but even though, they don't own the Doctor at all, they own him more than I do.

**Word of the Day - Irrefragable**

_Irrefragable – (adj.) impossible to refute; incontestable; undeniable_

When Jack first traveled with the Doctor and Rose, it had been obvious to him that they were absolutely and completely in love. Then, they had left him, so he had stopped thinking about it. When they had found them again, he had first, punched the Doctor, accepted an abject apology for changing him from Rose, and then had hugged them both (and had snuck a kiss to Rose). Oh, how he had missed them. Finally, after accepting an invitation to join them again, he had again began to observe the Doctor and Rose. And, if it was possible, it seemed to Jack that they had fallen even more in love since the Doctor's regeneration into this cheeky and foxy individual. They were so cute together, it almost made Jack sick because they didn't _do_ anything about it. The Doctor and Rose wouldn't even admit that they were in love. And Jack, being himself, knew he was going to have to do something about that.

So, one day, when Rose had escaped to go shopping, Jack cornered the Doctor while he was tinkering with the TARDIS.

"So, Doctor, I-" Jack began but was interrupted by the Doctor's impatient request for a certain tool.

"Doctor," Jack began again after watching the Doctor again retreat under the console with the tool. "You know you're in love with Rose, don't you?"

"What?" the Doctor asked, his voice muffled.

"I said, you know you're in love with Rose, don't you?"

"I'm not in love with her," the Doctor protested from under the console. "She's just my best friend."

"Uh-huh. So, then, who've you been shagging lately?" Jack asked.

As soon as he asked that, Jack saw the Doctor's body jerk as he tried to sit up in shock. Then, he heard a loud "ouch" as the Doctor whacked his head on the underside of the console.

When the Doctor finally extracted himself from under the console, he stood up, glared at Jack, and while still rubbing his throbbing head, said, "I haven't been shagging _anyone_ – I couldn't! Why would you even ask me that?"

Jack gave the Doctor a knowing smile and explained, "Well, you have a … _certain look_ about you. I know that look – I have _plenty_ of experience with it." Jack winked. "It could only be caused by your spending a lot of time with someone you love (and that could only be Rose) or by you having good and frequent sex."

The Doctor blushed and looked at Jack furiously at the same time. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but no words came out. Jack had actually managed to shut the Doctor up.

"So, Doctor, if you're not shagging anyone, then the reason you go around the TARDIS singing to yourself is that you're in love with Rose. Come on, just admit it! It's undeniable, irrefragable, and incontestable!"

"Stop it – just stop it! I'm not in love with her!"

"Have you seen yourself? You show off to her every chance you get, go around with a silly smile on your face whenever she's around, aren't happy unless you're holding her hand, come up with completely flimsy excuses for hugging her-" Jack would've continued but he saw the Doctor looking off into the distance thoughtfully. _He's finally getting it._

"I guess you're right," the Doctor finally said, before breaking into a blinding smile. "I love Rose Tyler," he admitted happily and then slid himself back under the console.

Jack had been preparing to use his victory as an excuse for a celebratory shag (the next time they landed) but the Doctor's action's were like a bucket of cold water. "That's it? You admit you love her, but you're not going to do anything about it?"

"What would I do?" asked the Doctor. "you just told me that I already act like I'm in love. What is there for me to change?"

Jack accepted defeat. His plan thwarted, Jack stomped out of the room. It was time for plan B. He hadn't ever wanted to use this plan, but if the Doctor was going to act like this, it was time to call in the special forces.

* * *

><p>Rose sat next to her mum, drinking tea and relaxing. That is, she was until her mum began to give her <em>that look<em>. When she saw that look, she began to get tense. When she heard what her mum said after she got that look, Rose knew she had been right to be tense. In fact, when she heard her mum's sentence, she spit her tea out all over the living room.

"Rose, love, when are you gonna make me a grandmother?"

Rose stared at her mum, her mouth wide open with shock.

"I'm not saying that I look old enough to be a gran, but I think I would like having a little one around again," Jackie continued. "Close your mouth, love. You'll catch flies."

Rose did, only for a second, before opening it again. "Mum, have you gone mad? You know I haven't been shagging any guys!"

Jackie rolled her eyes. "I wasn't talking about just any guy. I meant the Doctor! But could you do me a favor? Could ya ask him what alien babies look like? I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle being a gran to babies with tentacles on short notice ..."

"Mum!" Rose exclaimed, blushing. "Will you just quit it? I'm not sleepn' with the Doctor!"

Jackie looked surprised. "Why not? You two are in love."

Now it was Rose's turn to be surprised. "No, we're not. He's just my best friend."

"Oh, it must be that handsome Captain Jack, then," Jackie commented approvingly. "Well, that's good – no chance of tentacles, then. Don't give me that look, Rose. It's obvious you're in love with someone in that crazy box and if it ain't the Doctor, it must be the Captain."

Rose thought silently to herself for a minute. Then, she exclaimed, "Oh my gosh! I'm in love with the Doctor!"

Jackie looked smug. "I told you so. So, will they have tentacles or not?"

"What? Oh, mum, that's not gonna happen. I don't see any reason to change my life with the Doctor – it couldn't possibly get any better than it is already."

Jackie stared at Rose stupefied. This was going to be harder than she'd originally thought.

* * *

><p>Jack's plan B had been evil but simple. If the Doctor wasn't going to make a move, then he would have to get Rose to. For that he needed to enlist the help of the much feared Jackie Tyler. He'd thought that Jackie would do the trick. But when she failed in the exact same manner that he had, Jack was stumped. What the hell was he supposed to do with two people who knew that they were in love but wouldn't do anything about it?<p>

* * *

><p>A couple of weeks after Jack's failed plans, the Doctor and Rose sat next to each other in the control room alone.<p>

"Doctor," Rose said.

"Hmm?"

"You said once that humans were the most compatible of species. Um … so what would happen if a human had kids with a humanoid alien?"

"Weelll, that really depends on the species. All kinds of different biological things would occur. But on the outside, they would look pretty much the same," the Doctor explained.

"No tentacles?" Rose asked.

"No tentacles," the Doctor confirmed with a laugh. "Why are you asking?"

"Oh, no reason," Rose replied, blushing slightly.

"Then why are you blushing?"

"I- I-"

The Doctor laughed. "It's okay! You look beautiful when you blush."

Rose turned to the Doctor, surprised. This must be a joke. "For a human, you mean."

The Doctor, however, wasn't willing to pretend that this wasn't happening. The fact that he loved her had been weighing heavily on his mind lately. Maybe he couldn't just let things go on the way they had been. "For anyone. R-Rose- you know that I-I love you, don't you?"

"What?"

"I love you," the Doctor repeated with more confidence.

Rose looked at him with tears in her eyes. When she had realized that she loved the Doctor, she had lied to her mum when she said that she didn't need anything more. She did, but she hadn't thought the Doctor would want anything more. Yet here he was, almost making a move. "Oh," she said. She wanted to continue on and tell him that she loved him too, but the words wouldn't come out. So, she did the only thing she could to communicated that fact. She kissed him.

The Doctor froze for a moment, but then got into it, taking control of the situation and thoroughly enjoying it.

"I love you," Rose said when they broke apart, "in case the TARDIS didn't translate that for you."

The Doctor chucked and kissed Rose again. A couple of minutes later, the Doctor managed to find time to mention that they should go thank Jack. "After all, he's the one who first told me I was in love with you and then I realized that he was right."

"Really?" Rose asked. "My mum did the same thing to me – the exact same thing ..."

"Really? That's coincidental – too coincidental … they must have- but that would mean- No. No, even they wouldn't-" The Doctor paused. "They did! And I know just what to do about it." He whispered his plan to Rose, and she was so pleased with it, she had to kiss him again.

* * *

><p>The Doctor, Rose, and Jack all went to Jackie's for dinner a couple of nights later. In the middle of the evening, Jack and Jackie met in the kitchen to discuss what to do about the Doctor and Rose. But, just as Jack was about to speak, the unthinkable happened – Jackie's pot of rice pudding exploded, covering Jack and Jackie in an incredibly noxious concoction that was definitely not rice pudding. There was a price to pay for even well intended conspiracy and they had just payed it.<p>

Jack and Jackie looked at each other and then looked into the other room just in time to see the Doctor and Rose sharing a celebratory kiss. That made the fact that they were going to stink for weeks almost worth it.

Almost.

**A/N: **I hoped you liked it and cringed in the appropriate spots! The first person to review this gets to give me a two word prompt. Also, I'd just like to mention, that the 50th reviewer gets a Doctor Who one shot all for themselves. I know that's a ways away, but I thought I'd just mention it. SO, review!


	10. Jamboree

**A/N: **Hooray! It's the tenth chapter! Ok, so this chapter is long – I mean, really long compared to my normal chapters. It's just that when I started writing, I couldn't stop. I don't know if all my chapters are going to be this long from now on … I guess we'll see … There was an extra prompt for this chapter – trust issues. The prompt was from V Evergreen (sorry the period's gone - fanfiction keeps deleting it) – I hope you like what I came up with!

**Disclaimer: **Guess what! I won the Doctor in a game of poker last night with Steven Moffat! Best game I ever played! What? No! Stop talking! I don't want you to tell me that Steven Moffat doesn't really own the Doctor. I really don't want to hear that.

**Word of the Day – Jamboree**

_Jamboree – (n.) a carousal; any noisy merrymaking_

The Doctor and Rose stood about five centimeters apart from each other.

Just a minute ago, everything had been different. They had been laughing at nothing in particular – just enjoying life and each other's company. The Doctor (for some reason he couldn't remember now) had spun Rose around. She in turn, had stumbled (the spinning had made her dizzy) and so, the Doctor had _had_ to put his hands on her waist and hold her tightly to him so that she wouldn't fall over.

That had brought them to their current position – a position that was very conducive to kissing Rose. And oh, did the Doctor want to. Rose's lips were so close to him. Yep, there they were, all plump and pink and inviting and desirous. But if he started staring at those lips, Rose would know what he was thinking right at that moment and that would be very bad. Very, very bad! Fortunately, he was staring at something even more compelling than her lips – her deep, brown eyes. That wouldn't give him away at all … then again, would it really be so bad if she did know what he was thinking at this moment? If he leaned in and kissed her like he longed to, that wouldn't be so bad, right? She was the most beautiful, wonderful human he had -

A wave of coldness poured over the Doctor. _That_ was why it would be bad – Rose was human. She was going to die. If he let things between them escalate, if he admitted certain things to himself, his pain at her death would be unbearable.

The Doctor quickly pulled away from Rose and walked over to the TARDIS console. Then, "Where do you wanna go next, Rose?" he asked brightly, as if nothing had just happened.

Rose tired not to look too disappointed. It was just, she'd been so sure that something was actually going to happen this time. The way he had looked at her … like she was the most wonderful thing in the universe. "Could we go – could we go back to Earth?" she asked quietly, not looking at him.

_What?_ the Doctor thought frantically as he turned to Rose, pain written all over his face. _What did I do? Why does she want to leave me? Rose, please don't! Don't leave! I- _"You want to leave?" he asked brokenly.

Rose's head snapped up. "What?" she asked. Then she took in the Doctor's downcast demeanor. She began to laugh. "Oh, _no_, you daft alien! I don't want to go home! I just want to go to one of those old fashioned carnivals we have at home – you know, the ones with rickety ferris wheels, cotton candy, crooked booth owners, and great chips! I know it's silly, I just-"

"Rose, that's brilliant!" the Doctor exclaimed, full of relief at Rose's words. "I think I've been to every single one of Earth's little carnivals like that. Well – all but a couple of them. I haven't been to that one in Mozambique … and I just heard about a new one in Buffalo, but that can't really count … Oh, and there was that one I was going to in Leeds but I got side tracked by this problem with the Shreidians and had to stop them from using Earth as a Gladiator ring. And then, as soon as I finished with them, I ran into some Raxacoricofallapatorians who happened to be friendly and had me come to dinner and so I never actually made it to the fair ground. Oh, and on the night I met you, I was actually on my way to one in London but then that whole thing with the Nestene Consciousness happened and – well, you know the rest. So, I guess there are more than a couple of them that I haven't been to, but I have been to most of them and that's pretty impressive considering how many there are on Earth, don't you think?"

Anyone else would have been left stupefied by that long and complicated speech, but Rose was not just anyone – she was the best. So, she wasn't phased at all by the Doctor. "Yeah," she agreed.

With his hands in his pockets, the Doctor grinned at her happily, while rocking back and forth on his toes. Then he exclaimed, "I know! I'll take you to the best carnival in the universe – the Renlimund Jamboree in the Sidamalh quadrant. Rose, the chips there … there aren't words to describe them."

Rose smiled and allowed herself to be distracted from her pain. "Well, come on then! Let's go! Those chips aren't going to eat themselves!"

"Alons-y!"

* * *

><p>Minutes later, the TARDIS materialized right on the outskirts of the Renlimund Jamboree in the Sidamalh quadrant.<p>

"Rose Tyler, welcome to the greatest carnival in the universe!" the Doctor said with a sweep of his hand. And even though they were standing outside of it, Rose could tell that it probably was. There were walls surrounding the carnival that were 27 sontorum units (4½ meters) high, but poking up over them were all kinds of booth tops, and the tops of little rides, and the pointed roof of a carousel, and a giant ferris wheel, all in vivid colors. Strands of twinkling lights covered everything and with the deep purple sky filled with stars as a backdrop, the entire place looked absolutely beautiful and exciting. Rose stared at the "jamboree" in awe. That is, she stared at it until the smell of hot, greasy chips floated over to her. As soon as she smelled that, she was gone – running as fast as she could towards the gate. The Doctor really had to bust his tail to catch up with her.

He finally did catch up with her at the gate, but only because she had had to wait for him. She needed some more credits to get in. Once they did (get in, that is), the first thing they did was get a large bucket of chips (apparently, chips were sold by the bucket here). Then, the Doctor watched Rose with amusement as she moaned with each bite she took.

After they had finally finished their chips, they tried out every single booth the carnival had to offer …

* * *

><p>"Rose, you're aim is off," the Doctor said for the third time in a sing-songy voice.<p>

Rose put down her gun and turned to the Doctor. "That's the third and last time you've interrupted me. My aim is not off!" Rose huffed in annoyance. "And you don't even like guns! How would you know anything about aiming?"

"No, but I like this gun! It can't hurt anybody – it just shoots plungers!"

"Fine! Whatever! I don't care! Let me shoot in peace!"

The Doctor held up his hands in surrender – after all, this girl was related to Jackie Tyler.

Full of relief that the Doctor had finally stopped talking, Rose again took aim and fired. The duckie at the very top of the little booth fell over with a clang.

Everyone stared at Rose in shock. Rose, on the other hand, smiled sweetly at the owner of the booth and requested the largest prize he had.

"Go away, Doctor. I'll join you in a minute."

Confused, the Doctor walked away. Rose joined him a minute later, a big smile on her face and one hand behind her back.

"How did you hit that duck? You were aiming four centimeters too far to the left!" the Doctor asked, still stupefied.

"Those guns _always_ shoot crookedly. I just took that into account." Rose laughed at the Doctor's face. He hated it when someone knew something he didn't, especially when he should have known it. "Stop pouting! Come on – I'll give you my prize if you stop pouting ..."

Easily distracted, the Doctor turned towards her with an excited look on his face.

Smiling, Rose took her hand out from behind her back.

The Doctor gave a great shout of joy. "Rose!" he cried out as she gave him what she had won – a giant banana, three times larger than a normal banana. He gave her a huge hug and opened the banana eagerly.

"Happy now?" Rose asked while she watched the Doctor happily.

"Oh, Rose, I'm ecstatic," the Doctor exclaimed with his mouth full …

* * *

><p>"Come on, Doctor … try. Please!"<p>

The Doctor sighed. He had tired really hard to resist Rose's pleading, but he couldn't – not when she gave him that smile. So, he gave in, picked up the rubber ball, and threw it at the glass bottle booth. However, he missed every single glass bottle. The green, three-legged proprietor began to laugh because Rose had built the Doctor's throwing skill up so much and he had missed every single bottle.

The Doctor, however, had the last laugh. The ball ricocheted off the wall, bounced off the cloth ceiling, and landed heavily on the shelf holding all the stuffed animal prizes. The ball broke the shelf in just the right way, causing all the animals to fall onto the bottles and knocked them all down.

The proprietor of the booth stared at the Doctor with his mouth open as the Doctor grabbed a stuffed prize without looking, put it in his bottomless pocket, and grabbed the beaming Rose's hand, while whispering something in her ear. A moment later, they ran …

* * *

><p>Still holding hands later, the Doctor and Rose walked past a building with a strange name that caused the Doctor to pause.<p>

"_Trust_," Rose read. "That's a strange name for a carnival booth … thing."

The Doctor got that adventurous look in his eye. "Well, let's find out what the game is!" he exclaimed and opened the door to the building.

As soon as they entered the building, the door closed behind them. The entire building was dark except for a spotlight that illuminated two chairs facing each other.

"Um, Doctor – what's going on here?" Rose asked, her voice full of uncertainty.

The Doctor, in turn, whipped out his sonic screwdriver, and scanned all around them. Then he smiled. "Nothing. The lighting is just for dramatic effect. Come on – let's take on the best this has to offer!"

As soon as they both sat down, a voice rang through the building. "Welcome to _Trust_," the voice said.

And then, the lights went out completely.

"Doctor?" Rose called out.

At the same time, the Doctor called out, "Rose?"

But for some reason, neither of them could hear the other.

All of a sudden, Rose found herself back in London, the Doctor standing beside her.

Rose tuned to him. "D-Doctor … what happened? Last thing I remember, we were at the carnival and -" Rose stopped when she saw the way the Doctor was looking at her – his eyes as cold as ice. "Doctor? What's wrong?"

The Doctor didn't answer her – he didn't say a word at all. He just looked at her. Then, he turned his back on her and walked away into the TARDIS, without saying a word. Rose looked on, frozen, as the TARDIS and her love disappeared.

Then, something inside her rebelled. _No! He- he can't have – he _didn't_ leave me! I trust him- he'd never leave me, which means this _can't_ be real. I trust him._

She was right, of course. The Doctor hadn't left her. The Doctor that had left her was not the real one. While Rose was living out her worst nightmare, the real Doctor was trapped in a nightmare of his own.

He found himself back on the TARDIS, with Rose standing across from him.

He jumped right back into the flow of things with one of his random rants. "Well – that was weird. I seemed to have blacked out. That never happens to me – well, almost never. It must have been a combination of the special atmosphere in the Sidamalh quadrant and the psychic field sent out by that "Truth" thing we were in. You know, I-" Then, he noticed that Rose had a pack on her back. "What's going on?"

"I want to go home, Doctor," she said coldly.

All the pain he had felt earlier came back, except now, it was worse because she was really leaving this time. His Rose was leaving him.

"I can't travel with you anymore," she continued, her voice completely devoid of regret. "I need something more."

The Doctor stood there, shell shocked. He didn't blame her for leaving – Rose deserved better than the Killer of His own Kind. But, oh, how he wanted her to stay. She made him better because she believed he was much better than he was-

That was just it! While the Doctor believed that she would be right to leave him, he knew that Rose didn't believe that. She wasn't going to leave him – she had promised him forever. And he trusted her.

The Doctor had never told Rose of his love for her because he hadn't trusted her enough not to break his fragile hearts. It had taken the prospect of her actually leaving to make him realize that he trusted her (just as much he loved her) not to leave him.

The Doctor had to get out of this illusion. And that was exactly what this whole situation was – an illusion. His trust issues resolved, the Doctor knew that this couldn't be real because this wasn't Rose. And the Doctor had to tell Rose that he loved her as soon as he could.

So, the Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver, pointed it straight at the image of Rose, and flicked on to setting 107B.

A second later, he was again sitting across from Rose. That situation did not last for very long, however, because Rose jumped up and launched herself into his arms. They held each other tightly and by unspoken consent, got out of that creepy building without losing contact with each other.

When they got outside, the Doctor looked into Rose's eyes, worried about her. If he had been through his worst nightmare, what had she gone through? "Rose, what happened to you in there?"

Rose shuddered when she thought of it. "I went through something where you left me on Earth without saying a word to me. But I'm okay! I knew it wasn't real."

"How did you know?"

"I trust you," she said, her eyes filled with that trust. "What happened to you?"

The Doctor gave her a small, sad smile. "You left me alone on the TARDIS," he said. Then he shook himself and changed the subject completely. "Oh, Rose! You know what we haven't done yet? We haven't ridden the ferris wheel yet!" With that, he pulled Rose off to the ferris wheel and it seemed as though he was running away from an important emotional issue, again.

* * *

><p>The view from the ferris wheel was absolutely gorgeous. But the Doctor was completely ignoring it. He had something- no, <em>someone<em> much more beautiful to look at.

Rose had started the ride out by looking at the view, but then she had noticed the Doctor looking at her. She looked right back at him and found that she couldn't look away. This was one of those moments they shared where so many things could happen but never did. Yet, this time was different.

This time, the Doctor took advantage of the situation and kissed Rose.

When that wonderful moment ended, Rose looked at the Doctor, amazed. "What was that?"

The Doctor looked at her like the answer was completely obvious. "A kiss ..."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I thought so. But what did it mean?"

Now it was the Doctor's turn to be confused. "I love you ..." What did she think it meant?

"Oh," Rose said, amazed again. "Good. No! Wait! I- I mean, I love you, too!" she finished with a slight giggle.

The Doctor smiled. "'Course you do," he said cheekily and kissed her again.

An unscheduled firework show started, sponsored by the _Trust_ building, which now, actually, looked completely different and had a sign saying _The Matchmaker_ on it. Could that mean something? Yeah, it could and it probably did, but even the Doctor couldn't spare enough braincells to think about it at the moment.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" the Doctor exclaimed a little while later. "I wanted to give you my prize!"

Rose smiled as she waited for her gift. How she loved this man with the universe's shortest attention span – even when he was kissing her, he couldn't keep his mind on the matter at hand. However, the interruption right now didn't really matter. The time they spent on the TARDIS later would be without interruptions.

"Ta-da!" the Doctor announced as he presented the prize. Then he stared at it in horror as he saw what it was.

It was a miniature stuffed Dalek.

Rose didn't waste any time – she grabbed the Dalek and threw it as far away as she could.

Relieved, the Doctor said, "I love that about you – you're so proactive. You-"

He was interrupted by Rose's lips pressed to his. "Mmhmmm," Rose agreed without breaking contact. Proactive was _exactly_ what she was – especially in matters concerning the Doctor, her, and kissing.

**A/N: **So, what'd ya think? I hope you liked it and I'd like to thank everyone who has supported this story. Please review, and remember – the 50th reviewer gets their own one shot!


	11. Katzenjammer

**A/N: **Ok. Wow. I'm not even going to talk about the fact that I haven't updated in more than SEVEN MONTHS! Not going to talk about the fact that I kind of quit fanfiction for a while. What I will tell you is that this story will go all the way to Z, no matter how long that takes. And, I will TRY MY VERY HARDEST not to ever go SEVEN MONTHS! without updating. I have a lot of things (stories included) on my plate right now, but I will update. I will! Thank you to everyone who's stuck with this story even though it's been on hiatus for so long.

**Disclaimer: **After SEVEN MONTHS! I don't deserve to own Doctor Who. So, I guess it's a good thing that I don't ...

**Word of the Day**

_Katzenjammer - (n.) the discomfort and illness experienced as the aftereffects of excess drinking; hangover  
><em>

It was odd – one moment they had just been laughing at one of those "a man walked into a bar" jokes, and the next moment, they were actually walking into a bar. Ok, it didn't happen exactly like that, but that's what it felt like.

They had been laughing inside the TARDIS when the Doctor had stopped laughing rather abruptly and said, "Do you want to go grab a drink?"

Rose blinked. _Go for a drink? Is he- no, he couldn't be … he's not asking you on a date, girl! Be realistic!_

"I mean, I just realized that out of all the places we've been – space stations, Earth – 1876, New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York, Raxacoricofallapatorius – we have never been to a bar, not even when Jack was around," the Doctor continued.

_See! Told you so … But a bar, hmmm? Sounds like fun! _Rose thought.

"An intergalactic bar?" she asked.

The Doctor smiled. "Oh, of course! One with crazy drinks you've never heard of and bartenders with two heads. You up to it?"

"Why, good sir," Rose responded, affecting an accent, "If you will but give me your escort, I'm up to anything!"

The Doctor ran around the TARDIS console, flipping switches and setting the TARDIS into movement. After a particularly turbulent few seconds, the Doctor stood up and brushed himself off. Then he walked over to Rose.

"Dame Rose," the Doctor said, joining the act as he offered her his arm, "escorting you would be my honor!"

* * *

><p>When they stepped out of the TARDIS, Rose found out where they were, exactly – the 51st century's most popular bar, <em>Le Cabezudo<em>. A minute later they entered the bar, Rose on the Doctor's arm, both of them incredibly happy.

* * *

><p>"Bananas!" the Doctor yelled as he bolted up straight, some time later. Then he moaned as his head seemed to split open. He lay back down, wanting to go back to sleep (it sounded so enticing right now) but then something occurred to him – something was wrong.<p>

Carefully, the Doctor looked around and discovered two things with a shock – one, he was laying on the very uncomfortable, grated floor of the TARDIS control room and two, he was wearing nothing but his tie, trainers, and boxers …

"What the-" he muttered to himself before he called out, "ROSE!"

Only a couple of seconds later, she appeared in the doorway between the control room and the hallway.

"Rose, what's going on? Why don't I have any clothes on?"

Rose didn't answer – she just gave him a brilliant smile and then began to walk towards him. Only, she couldn't really do that properly. She kept stumbling and walking crookedly. About halfway to him, she couldn't seem to stay on her feet anymore, and fell in heap on the floor.

"Rose! Are you okay?" the Doctor inquired earnestly, hurry towards her to help her up.

"Oopsy. I falled down," Rose announced before bursting into peals of laughter.

The Doctor knelt down besides her. "Rose, are you _drunk_?"

* * *

><p>Rose hurried to the control room when she heard the Doctor call out her name. <em>He must have woken up. Probably gonna complain that I left him on the floor. But honestly, for a skinny bloke, he ways a ton! I couldn't drag him all the way to his room while he was passed out! Besides I covered him in a blanket and brought him a pillow. He really has nothing to complain about.<em>

"Yeah, Doctor? What's wrong?" Rose said when she reached the control room. Then she realized what she was seeing. "Doctor … why aren't you wearing any clothes?"

"Boring," the Doctor said with an arch look.

"What?!" She began to walk towards him, confused. But she was so focused on him, she didn't watch where she was going and she tripped and fell. The Doctor walked towards her and then knelt besides her.

"Clothes are _boring_," he clarified, giving her that _you-just-dribbled-down-your-chin-again_ look.

Rose just looked at the Doctor. _What?! What the hell is going on here? Clothes are boring?!_

"Doctor, are you _still_ drunk?"

* * *

><p>"Rose, are you <em>drunk<em>?"

Rose giggled and then tried to get up, saying, "Jus' a little … tipsy! Dotor- No … Docor … Doctor- Doctor!"

"Yeah, Rose?" the Doctor replied, looking very concerned.

"You're a lil' bit foxy. An' your not wearing a shirt." Rose punctuated each syllable of the last sentence with a poke to the Doctor's bare chest.

"Oh – no, I'm not, am I?" The Doctor didn't want to give Rose any ideas (not in the state she was in right now, anyway) so he helped her up and then quickly put on his shirt, trousers, and jacket. "Now, Rose, how did you get so drunk?"

"Iiiii draaaaank somethin', stupid!" Rose said, drawing out some of her words. Then she fell against the Doctor's chest and began to sob.

"Rose, stop! It's alright!"

Rose Tyler slapped the Doctor in the face.

* * *

><p>"Doctor, are you <em>still<em> drunk?"

The Doctor glared at her. "Of course I'm not drunk. I don't get drunk. I'm far too superior. Don't be stupid."

"Doctor, what ever is wrong with you, you need to put a shirt on," Rose insisted, poking the Doctor's bare chest. "When ever you stop being weird and wake up, you are going to kill me if I just let you go around without clothes on!"

"No! I refuse! It is illogical."

"_Doctor ..._"

"Fine!" The Doctor began to pout as Rose assisted him into his clothes.

Rose sighed when they had finished redressing the Doctor. "Doctor, don't you know that something's wrong here - with you?"

"The only thing wrong here is that I am forced to associate with someone who posses as little intelligence as you do," the Doctor spat out.

Rose Tyler blinked. Then, with out missing a beat, she slapped the Doctor in the face.

* * *

><p>Rose Tyler slapped the Doctor in the face.<p>

"OW! What was that for?!" the Doctor exclaimed, holding his injured face. He hated it when the Tyler women did that!

"You- you won' kiss me!" Rose wailed before burying her face back in the Doctor's chest.

The Doctor was flabbergasted. "What?!"

"I love you an' you won' kiss me! Don' you love me, Doc-"

The Doctor interrupted, quickly, "Rose, don't be foolish. I-"

Rose gave out a cry. "You think … I'm silly! You don' love me!"

"Rose, I-"

"YOU DON' LOVE ME!" Rose yelled and then broke down again, her wails echoing through out the TARDIS.

The Doctor was utterly confused. Rose was acting so bizarrely – she was a hell of a drunk! And he was afraid that if this went on much longer, she'd never forgive him for not stopping her from making the fool of herself that she was. So (Just to shut her up, of course. That's all it was. It couldn't mean anything ...), the Doctor kissed Rose Tyler.

* * *

><p>Rose Tyler blinked. Then, with out missing a beat, she slapped the Doctor in the face.<p>

"What was that for?!" asked a completely confused, but superior looking, Doctor.

Rose glared at him. "I don't care what's wrong with you – whether you're drunk or not – you are a jerk sometimes!"

The Doctor shook his head, all of a sudden looking perplexed in a different way. "What-"

"I'm not even your girlfriend or anything and I _still_ have to put up with you when you're annoyingly drunk or what ever's going on with you. And you're still this dense and awful when you're not mentally inhibited! We share so much but you can't possibly lower yourself to speak to me about anything meaningful! I said forever and I mean it, but you are awful annoying!"

"Rose, what are you talking about?"

"I mean, I'm never gonna leave you," Rose continued on as if she hadn't been interrupted, "'cause I love you, but that doesn't mean that I like putting up with this stuff, especially when you haven't ever even acknowledged what we've got between us! And when I say stuff, I'm not talking about now – I'm talking about you always pushing me away and leaving me on a spaceship for a French prostitute and-" She broke off out of breath and ashamed. _Whoa. Where did that come from? I don't even mean that- well, I wish he would just tell me that he loves me too and I wish that he didn't leave me for Rienette, but what I just said was uncalled for! _

And then, Rose kissed him, perhaps to apologize for what she had just said, perhaps for some … _other_ … reason.

"Oh my gosh- Doctor, I'm sorry. I did not mean to say that or to do that. I don't know where that came from- I guess I'm just tired. Come on, let's get you to bed so you can sleep what ever you've got going on, off."

The Doctor stared at her. "There's nothing wrong with me. I think you had a little too much to drink, Rose. You just spent the last few minutes sobbing on my chest and I'm sorry I kissed you if it's gonna make you yell, but I just- _You_ need to go to bed."

"What? I've not been sobbing on your chest – you've been picking on me! And, _you_ didn't kiss _me_! _I_ just kissed _you_ after yelling at you!"

"Wait- You just kissed me- No, you didn't! I- wait ... I've got this headache- Oh. No. I can't have been so stupid!" The Doctor punctuated stupid by hitting his head, something he immediately regretted doing. "We were at a bar- Rose, you don't happen to know if I drunk any Venusian Sherry while we were there, do you?"

Rose was looking very adorably confused. "Um, maybe? Actually yeah, we did. The bartender said it was really good and I gave you some."

"Rose, I can't get drunk on regular alcohol. I'm kind of immune to it. The only thing that can mess with me is Venusian Sherry. It makes me pass out drunk and when I wake up, I go through something called Katzenjammer Syndrome which is pretty much a hangover that messes with my mind worse than being drunk messes with humans. It's also called Looking Glass Syndrome. From my point of view, it looked like you were drunk and I was trying to calm you down, but apparently something else happened in reality."

"Uh, yeah, you were really rude and- Oh! OH! You were- I get it, now. I know what you were doing! You were imitating Sherlock from the telly show! And then, I kind of lost it when you were really rude … I slapped you in the face, yelled at you, and then … um, kissed you." Rose finished, really quietly.

"Did you? From my point of view, I was the one doing the kissing ..."

Rose gave a weak little smile. "Does that mean somethin', Doctor?"

The Doctor looked at Rose tenderly. "Well, although I wasn't in control of the myself in front of you, in my hallucination, I knew exactly what I was doing. And now that I've stopped being the equivalent of a stupid ape, I've realized something that I should have figured out a long time ago. It's time I told you I love you, Rose Tyler. Oh, and, I should be kissing you a lot more often."

Rose grinned through the tears of joy running down her face. "A Time Lord and a Human walked into a bar ..."

"... did some stupid stuff and realized that the stupidest thing they'd been doing for a long time was not talking to each other. Especially the Time Lord. He was _really_ stupid."

Rose punched the Doctor in the arm. "That's a terrible way to end that joke!"

"How 'bout this? … and they lived happily ever after."

**A/N: **Tada! What'd ya think? First reviewer gets to give me an extra prompt! And bonus points (maybe a fic ... if I'm particularly impressed) for anyone who can tell me what the name of the bar is a reference to. Anyway, review, follow, favorite ... you know the drill! And thank you muchly!


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